Tram Hike to Summit 06/23/07

[reelds9]

Hello, forum members. This is my first post! I've been reading this board on and off for over a year. Last year I hiked to the summit with friends on the Fuller Ridge route. We will never do that again - too many ups and downs. This year we hiked up from the tram. Much easier. I have photos and more descriptions of the hike in my blog, http://reelds9.blogspot.com/

[Perry]

I like the Machu Picchu pics. Who talked you into hiking in Desert Hot Springs?

[reelds9]

Thanks for looking at my other pictures, Perry. My friend's house sits on the edge of Joshua Tree Park. We were going to drive there and hike but we were too hung-over from drinking beer the night before. So we just hiked the hills behind his yard and almost made it to the park according to my GPS.

[magikwalt]

I thought the write up on Mt. Whitney was great. I've seen so many "We did it!!!" write ups but the ones that really interest me are those that talk about the struggles it can really turn into. The Machu Picchu pictures are great and after my wife saw them she is researching a trip to Peru.

Great! That's going to take money out of the bank account.

[reelds9]

Thanks, magikwalt. I hope to have a "I made it" report after my Whitney hike in two weeks. Machu Picchu was really fun. The currency exchange rate in Peru makes travel there cheap, except you'll want to stay in the nicest hotel possible.

[zippetydude]

I've been looking into Machu Picchu for a while now, but had not seen a picture of that "bridge". That's amazing all by itself. Somehow I'm terribly impressed by how much people could do before there were powerful machines to do everything for us. Each of those stones had to be ridiculously heavy...

Anyway, cool pics and sounds like a cool trip. Thanks for posting.

z

[magikwalt]

Machu Picchu made into the New Seven Wonders of the World list based upon international voting via the internet.

http://www.new7wonders.com/index.php?id=633

[reelds9]

Yes, I have now visited one of The Seven New Wonders of the World.

Yesterday two friends and I hike San Jacinto again, this time from the Marion Mountian trail. It was much more difficult than I thought it would be. It took us six hours to summit and three to get back down. Amazingly, we were the only ones at the top at 4PM.

On the way up, we encountered about eight Japanese adults being guided down the mountain. They all said "hi" to us and looked like they were doing well. On our way down the last two very steep miles, we saw the guide, Bob, hiking back up the hill. He said he lost three of his group. They somehow took a wrong turn at a junction and could have been on any number of trails. When we got to the trailhead, the group that made it down were waiting for their friends. It was 7:30 and getting dark. On the way out, we stopped at both range stations to give them a heads-up, but they were closed. I hope Bob found his missing hikers.